We've had the good fortune of seeing a couple of gigs lately. We always enjoy live music, but finding bands/artists we like at venues we like on dates that we're free, and at prices we like is always difficult.
However - despite our picky-ness we made it to the following recently (nicely matching with some recent CD purschases!)
KT Tunstall at Colston Hall, Bristol
Now...one of the games we played when we lived in Shepherd's Bush was guessing who was playing at the Empire (a popular music venue just round the corner from where we lived) from the people who were queueing up/milling around. e.g. Jack Johnson gigs have lots of normally-dressed, but pretty stoned, surfer and indie types; The Beautiful South had lots of middle-aged, middle-of-the-road-looking people queueing outside.
For some reason, I was very self-concious at this KT gig. Though the crowd was a real mix, I felt slightly too young, slightly too normal, slightly too 90's indie. Yet, I think if I was playing the "who's on at the Colston Hall" game, I'd have picked me out as a MOR soft-rocker type along with everyone else. And I didn't like that. Part of me is embarrassed that I went.
BUT...I don't really care. The gig was GREAT! KT is a great entertainer, with lots of crowd-pleasing banter. She's confident and charming, but a bit kooky. She's incredibly cool, and very talented, but comes across as homely and clumsy. Her mum and dad were in the audience and she even forgot the words to one song called "Hopeless", which, ironically, is about being just that!
The band were awesome and KT certainly doesn't stand alone, with a bassist, guitarist, keyboards/random sounds guy, a brilliant percussionist (I'm not calling him a drummer because he played far more than just drums), and two backing singers, playing, between them all, a HUGE number of different instruments.
The songs were great, and we had fun, and enjoyed a class act.
Martyn Joseph at Marlborough Town Hall
I was almost certainly too young and too cool to attend this aging, accoustic folk-rockers latest tour, but we love him to bits and we've caught the last 2 tours (and previous gigs too), so I've already lost any credibility I might have had. :-)
We've seen MJ with accompaniment before - a single keyboard player at a gig at Bush Hall in London. But this time he had a little band of sorts. There was a very cool-looking and talented female bassist playing double bass and both fretted and fretless electric bass - not all at the same time of course. And a very un-cool-looking but equally talented wind-instrument guy, playing tenor sax, clarinet and...yes really...the recorder!
I won't say much about MJ. He was on good form and the new songs, which have grown on me more since my album review, sound great live. Though I prefer "Kindness" unaccompanied...it has a certain kind of emotion and tension when it's just the accoustic guitar...it's longing for more sound around it..."how I miss you/my angel and my reason how I miss you". (Though I'm just listening to it again and there's a hint of piano and electric guitar on the album version...so I'm wrong there. I do prefer the album version though).
What did amaze me at this gig was the teamwork, humility and restraint of the musicians. The wind-instrument guy hardly played at all. He only chipped in when it was needed. He didn't, pardon the pun, blow his own trumpet.
There's a great metaphor in here for how we should live our lives. Quietly working in the background, not demanding attention, playing along to the tune of our creator, but remembering always that it's His work. He's the lead, we follow, we play, and if we demand too much attention that will detract from His glory!
Music is a great gift and I left both gigs thankful for the talented people who write and play these songs to bring us pleasure.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Friday, November 16, 2007
No logo?
[Note - the original idea for this was to include pictures of the logos mentioned but I decided this was probably not legal and so removed them and just did my own "representations", in the hope that that's allowed. Look them up on an image search if you want the real thing!]
"Maaaarketing..." said an alien on Radio 4's "The Now Show" some time last year...he was amused by the fact that humans bottled water and sold it at extortionate cost to one another.
"Yes, this is amusing. Marketing - hahahaha".
Which pretty much sums up my understanding of the topic.
The issue of "corporate re-blanding" has been bothering me for a while. A certain company quite close to my heart has recently scrapped its well-known logo and put in its place the name of the company, written in a bold, sans serif font, in a variety of colours...which is exactly what a similar company had done a couple of years beforehand.
But why? Why scrap an image that's recognised around the world and replace it with the same thing that everyone else is doing?
Some examples.
Welcome Break - you've all stopped on the motorway services and experienced the wonders of their toilets. They used to have a nice old fashioned picture of a swan coming in to land above their name.
I never quite got the swan thing. Presumably swans like a gigantic fried breakfast halfway through their migration or something (do swans migrate?), but it was recognisable and kinda homely...welcoming. So what's with the new "logo", which basically looks like this...
This one particularly irritates me because NOWTHEYWRITEEVERYTHINGINBOLD UPPERCASESANS-SERIFANDITSREALLYHARDTOREADANDITSOUNDSLIKETHEY'RE SHOUTINGATYOU. Not actually very welcoming at all.
Marks and Spencer: Wow - I realise that I've not seen the name in full for a while now. Yes, they're doing it on the high street too! The old, angular logo was just a name and a magic little ampersand, presented on two lines in a nice shade of green. But it was a well-recognised name.
However, M&S have actually changed a lot. They used to be seen as a stuffy old supermarket that only sold its own brand food to old people, but for many that view has changed. Their new logo is modern and reflects that change but I'm still left wondering if they could have come up with something more unique than their initials in a curvy black and greeny-yellow...this is not just any logo, it's a smooth, sophisticated, trips-off-your tongue logo...my cheap imitation is simply something like:
The Co-op. Possibly another story of a stuffy old shop modernising - the old logo's loopy, lowercase, blue letters laid out in a square formation, firmly reminding me of shopping with my granny. Like M&S I like what the Co-operative are doing but surely they're just jumping on a bandwagon with the new look...which isn't far off something like...
Even charities are at it...internation Christian development agency, Tearfund, had their name in two fonts - with and without serifs, two colours - deep green and clean white, two weights - normal and bold, with a nice dandelion head in an orange box next to it. But even charities modernise and we now have nothing more than...
(I should point out that the "t" should be cross-shaped with no curly bottom. This is probably important, but I don't have a standard font that looks like that!)
It's a silly thing to have a rant about but what bugs me is that all the skill and creativity seems to have gone from marketing. Let's just take a company name, optionally abbreviate it in some way, pick a modern typeface, and choose a couple of colours. Anyone could do it? Couldn't they?
If I had the time I could write a computer program to randomly re-brand company names in this way. And people get paid a fortune to do it?
So...to any marketing people out there...what's stopping me?
Alien 1: Here, buy this
Alien 2: I already have this
Alien 1: "Marketing"
Alien 2: Okay then, I'll buy it
Alien 1: I have laughed so hard I have accidentally passed what passes for alien wee-wee
Alien 2: Put it in a bottle, you could sell it to the humans
Both: hahahahaha
"Maaaarketing..." said an alien on Radio 4's "The Now Show" some time last year...he was amused by the fact that humans bottled water and sold it at extortionate cost to one another.
"Yes, this is amusing. Marketing - hahahaha".
Which pretty much sums up my understanding of the topic.
The issue of "corporate re-blanding" has been bothering me for a while. A certain company quite close to my heart has recently scrapped its well-known logo and put in its place the name of the company, written in a bold, sans serif font, in a variety of colours...which is exactly what a similar company had done a couple of years beforehand.
But why? Why scrap an image that's recognised around the world and replace it with the same thing that everyone else is doing?
Some examples.
Welcome Break - you've all stopped on the motorway services and experienced the wonders of their toilets. They used to have a nice old fashioned picture of a swan coming in to land above their name.
I never quite got the swan thing. Presumably swans like a gigantic fried breakfast halfway through their migration or something (do swans migrate?), but it was recognisable and kinda homely...welcoming. So what's with the new "logo", which basically looks like this...
| WELCOMEBREAK |
This one particularly irritates me because NOWTHEYWRITEEVERYTHINGINBOLD UPPERCASESANS-SERIFANDITSREALLYHARDTOREADANDITSOUNDSLIKETHEY'RE SHOUTINGATYOU. Not actually very welcoming at all.
Marks and Spencer: Wow - I realise that I've not seen the name in full for a while now. Yes, they're doing it on the high street too! The old, angular logo was just a name and a magic little ampersand, presented on two lines in a nice shade of green. But it was a well-recognised name.
However, M&S have actually changed a lot. They used to be seen as a stuffy old supermarket that only sold its own brand food to old people, but for many that view has changed. Their new logo is modern and reflects that change but I'm still left wondering if they could have come up with something more unique than their initials in a curvy black and greeny-yellow...this is not just any logo, it's a smooth, sophisticated, trips-off-your tongue logo...my cheap imitation is simply something like:
M&S
The Co-op. Possibly another story of a stuffy old shop modernising - the old logo's loopy, lowercase, blue letters laid out in a square formation, firmly reminding me of shopping with my granny. Like M&S I like what the Co-operative are doing but surely they're just jumping on a bandwagon with the new look...which isn't far off something like...
The co-operative
Even charities are at it...internation Christian development agency, Tearfund, had their name in two fonts - with and without serifs, two colours - deep green and clean white, two weights - normal and bold, with a nice dandelion head in an orange box next to it. But even charities modernise and we now have nothing more than...
(I should point out that the "t" should be cross-shaped with no curly bottom. This is probably important, but I don't have a standard font that looks like that!)
It's a silly thing to have a rant about but what bugs me is that all the skill and creativity seems to have gone from marketing. Let's just take a company name, optionally abbreviate it in some way, pick a modern typeface, and choose a couple of colours. Anyone could do it? Couldn't they?
If I had the time I could write a computer program to randomly re-brand company names in this way. And people get paid a fortune to do it?
So...to any marketing people out there...what's stopping me?
Alien 1: Here, buy this
Alien 2: I already have this
Alien 1: "Marketing"
Alien 2: Okay then, I'll buy it
Alien 1: I have laughed so hard I have accidentally passed what passes for alien wee-wee
Alien 2: Put it in a bottle, you could sell it to the humans
Both: hahahahaha
Monday, November 05, 2007
Form vs Function
Why is it that things that perform a job well always look stupid? This seems to be especially true of sports wear.
Why is it that the best way to keep warm on my bike in winter is to wear skin-tight, fleecy-lined tights?
Why is bright yellow seemingly the best colour to wear if you want to be seen on the roads in the daytime?
When are they going to invent some head protection that looks compact and stylish (this probably does exist but is not in my price range).
Where can I get some overshoes that don't make my feet look like they belong to a large black alien.
And of course, wearing all these things together simply make a person look ridiculous.
Why is it that the best way to keep warm on my bike in winter is to wear skin-tight, fleecy-lined tights?
Why is bright yellow seemingly the best colour to wear if you want to be seen on the roads in the daytime?
When are they going to invent some head protection that looks compact and stylish (this probably does exist but is not in my price range).
Where can I get some overshoes that don't make my feet look like they belong to a large black alien.
And of course, wearing all these things together simply make a person look ridiculous.
I've been experiencing this strange law of nature recently as I've been acquiring and wearing more winter kit for my commute. And I'm sure it holds true for more than just cycling kit. I bet runners (Sarah?) have the same feelings about vests and shorts and so on - I bet the stuff that keeps you cool and comfortable in summer and warm and safe in winter looks really weird.
So as winter goes on and I wrap up more and more I expect more and more jibes about how silly I look. Well let it be said that I don't care! I may look daft, but I'm warm, dry, fast, fit, safe and comfortable. So there!!!
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Broken, deflated and worn out
I've had some wheel problems of late and have learned a few things in the process.
Breaking...and fixing...spokes
First of all, during the house move, I decided, stupidly to transport our three bikes in horizontal formation - flat, on top of one another, in the back of the transit van.
Lesson 1: Transporting multiple bikes horizontally is not a good idea.
Why? Well mostly because I totally overloaded the weight on one of my wheels and broke four of the spokes.
Now, I've heard that wheel building, and spoke replacement are pretty difficult to get right and it's easy to end up with a very wobbly wheel. But, with a bit of effort and a lot of fiddling, I managed to do this myself.
Lesson 2: Don't be scared of people in bike shops. If you explain that you're trying to fix something yourself they're quite helpful.
Lesson 3: Replacing spokes isn't as hard as everyone makes it out to be.
Lesson 4: When replacing multiple spokes do some serious preparation working out the spoke pattern. This will save you much time later on!
My first flat
Pretty chuffed with my wheel work, I started the ride to work an back again. I've been playing with different routes at weekend with the aim of extending my rides to make them into longer training rides.
On the first extended ride home, I must sadly report that I got my first puncture. Yes, after just over a year and about 1300 miles, I finally got my first flat!
I had a pump with me, but my multi-tool, patches and spare tube were in my seat pack...at home.
Lesson 5: It doesn't matter if your ride is short and not straying too far from home. It's ALWAYS worth putting your seat-pack-full-of-tools on.
I swallowed my pride and phoned home for a lift. Sally was most gracious and drove out to pick me, and my poor wheels, up.
Lesson 6: My hybrid with fully-loaded paniers is pretty heavy and carrying it any distance is hard work. When calling for roadside assistance be sure to get the person to drive to where you are, not to a point several hundred metres away up a hill!
Replacing Tyres
As I repaired the flat, I realised that my tyres were starting to look pretty worn. So they've been replaced now too. I still feel like the back wheel is a bit lumpy. It looks straight and true and, if anything, the bulge/wobble that I used to have in my tyre is gone. So it should be better! But it just feels not-quite-right when I do any speed in a straight line.
In addition, the, erm, well, a the bit of the bike that holds attaches the handlebar to the frame, is loose. It's occasionally worked it way loose before but a good strong turn of an allen key has sorted it out. Sadly, this time, the hexagonal hole that you put the allen key into is wearing away and I can't get enough force onto it to get it tight without it slipping. It might be a bike shop job now.
So in general my poor old machine is suffering a bit. I try to look after it but I guess 1300 miles is quite a lot for a cheap little Raleigh. Poor thing.
Breaking...and fixing...spokes
First of all, during the house move, I decided, stupidly to transport our three bikes in horizontal formation - flat, on top of one another, in the back of the transit van.
Lesson 1: Transporting multiple bikes horizontally is not a good idea.
Why? Well mostly because I totally overloaded the weight on one of my wheels and broke four of the spokes.
Now, I've heard that wheel building, and spoke replacement are pretty difficult to get right and it's easy to end up with a very wobbly wheel. But, with a bit of effort and a lot of fiddling, I managed to do this myself.
Lesson 2: Don't be scared of people in bike shops. If you explain that you're trying to fix something yourself they're quite helpful.
Lesson 3: Replacing spokes isn't as hard as everyone makes it out to be.
Lesson 4: When replacing multiple spokes do some serious preparation working out the spoke pattern. This will save you much time later on!
My first flat
Pretty chuffed with my wheel work, I started the ride to work an back again. I've been playing with different routes at weekend with the aim of extending my rides to make them into longer training rides.
On the first extended ride home, I must sadly report that I got my first puncture. Yes, after just over a year and about 1300 miles, I finally got my first flat!
I had a pump with me, but my multi-tool, patches and spare tube were in my seat pack...at home.
Lesson 5: It doesn't matter if your ride is short and not straying too far from home. It's ALWAYS worth putting your seat-pack-full-of-tools on.
I swallowed my pride and phoned home for a lift. Sally was most gracious and drove out to pick me, and my poor wheels, up.
Lesson 6: My hybrid with fully-loaded paniers is pretty heavy and carrying it any distance is hard work. When calling for roadside assistance be sure to get the person to drive to where you are, not to a point several hundred metres away up a hill!
Replacing Tyres
As I repaired the flat, I realised that my tyres were starting to look pretty worn. So they've been replaced now too. I still feel like the back wheel is a bit lumpy. It looks straight and true and, if anything, the bulge/wobble that I used to have in my tyre is gone. So it should be better! But it just feels not-quite-right when I do any speed in a straight line.
In addition, the, erm, well, a the bit of the bike that holds attaches the handlebar to the frame, is loose. It's occasionally worked it way loose before but a good strong turn of an allen key has sorted it out. Sadly, this time, the hexagonal hole that you put the allen key into is wearing away and I can't get enough force onto it to get it tight without it slipping. It might be a bike shop job now.
So in general my poor old machine is suffering a bit. I try to look after it but I guess 1300 miles is quite a lot for a cheap little Raleigh. Poor thing.
A Month Off
Phew, I'm finally back in the land of the living. Where have I been? Here's my excuses for not writing for a month...
Moving House
Well, the house exchange and completion went through. We got the keys to our new house on October 5th. Sally was away for the weekend and I'd been banned from moving in until she got home, so I got on with the job of cleaning and tidying the old place. We moved in proper on the Monday.
The house is great but a little rough around the edges. Lots of bits of DIY/building that seem to have been finished in a hurry. But it's ours, it has three bedrooms, a huge garden and it's in a great location.
Of course, we've had to clean up and get out of the old rented house too. Phew.
No Broadband
Moving house means setting up a new phone line and having our Internet connection set up. This meant several weeks without Broadband. Quite a nice experience really. We get so much more "real" stuff done without Google and Facebook and Blogger. We didn't really miss it at all. Of course, now it's back we're back in the habit of making good use of our "always on" pipe to the universe.
A note about providers...we were with Zen Internet, who provide excellent service, but at a cost. Our up-to-8Mb connection was costing £17 per month with a 2GB usage limit. So after some debate and research we decided to KEEP Sky TV and take Sky Broadband and Sky Talk (phone calls) too. Much as I dislike having hundreds of TV channels that I never watch. This appealed because:
Holiday
We decided, shortly after the house move, to take a week's holiday. My In-Law's were off to Spain for a few nights and asked if we wanted to house-sit. With a free weeks' holiday on the edge of Dartmoor being offered we couldn't really refuse and it turned out to be just what we needed. We've just got back from this week off and we're well relaxed and trying to summon up the mental effort required to get back to work tomorrow.
We also popped to London on Friday for a couple of friends of ours who were having an engagement party. We're VERY excited that they're getting married and the party was really great.
Returning to London is an odd experience. We drive in thinking that it's horrid, busy, noisy, etc, but after a couple of hours re-uniting with good friends we miss it. Of course, we've made good friends here in Swindon too, but we're really still getting to know people and it's not the same as connecting with people that you've known inside-out for many years. There are things about London as a city that we miss, but mostly it's the people.
Finally...
So, yes, after all that we're in the new house, broadband is back, and we're not on holiday any more. I probably have some catching up to do. I keep having "I must write about that" moments, but can't remember what any of them are now. If they're that important then they'll come back to me I'm sure.
Moving House
Well, the house exchange and completion went through. We got the keys to our new house on October 5th. Sally was away for the weekend and I'd been banned from moving in until she got home, so I got on with the job of cleaning and tidying the old place. We moved in proper on the Monday.
The house is great but a little rough around the edges. Lots of bits of DIY/building that seem to have been finished in a hurry. But it's ours, it has three bedrooms, a huge garden and it's in a great location.
Of course, we've had to clean up and get out of the old rented house too. Phew.
No Broadband
Moving house means setting up a new phone line and having our Internet connection set up. This meant several weeks without Broadband. Quite a nice experience really. We get so much more "real" stuff done without Google and Facebook and Blogger. We didn't really miss it at all. Of course, now it's back we're back in the habit of making good use of our "always on" pipe to the universe.
A note about providers...we were with Zen Internet, who provide excellent service, but at a cost. Our up-to-8Mb connection was costing £17 per month with a 2GB usage limit. So after some debate and research we decided to KEEP Sky TV and take Sky Broadband and Sky Talk (phone calls) too. Much as I dislike having hundreds of TV channels that I never watch. This appealed because:
- Sky Talk costs nothing and gives free evening and weekend calls.
- Sky Broadband is £5 for up-to-8Mb with a 40GB usage limit.
- Sky + (Sky's hard-disk based TV recording system), now has no monthly subscription cost.
Holiday
We decided, shortly after the house move, to take a week's holiday. My In-Law's were off to Spain for a few nights and asked if we wanted to house-sit. With a free weeks' holiday on the edge of Dartmoor being offered we couldn't really refuse and it turned out to be just what we needed. We've just got back from this week off and we're well relaxed and trying to summon up the mental effort required to get back to work tomorrow.
We also popped to London on Friday for a couple of friends of ours who were having an engagement party. We're VERY excited that they're getting married and the party was really great.
Returning to London is an odd experience. We drive in thinking that it's horrid, busy, noisy, etc, but after a couple of hours re-uniting with good friends we miss it. Of course, we've made good friends here in Swindon too, but we're really still getting to know people and it's not the same as connecting with people that you've known inside-out for many years. There are things about London as a city that we miss, but mostly it's the people.
Finally...
So, yes, after all that we're in the new house, broadband is back, and we're not on holiday any more. I probably have some catching up to do. I keep having "I must write about that" moments, but can't remember what any of them are now. If they're that important then they'll come back to me I'm sure.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)